I certainly don't wish to defend barrels and gallons of petroleum products from metrication, but I would like to defend them from charges of dishonesty, or say, perhaps the dishonesty stems from government.
I don't invest in commodities, but I occasionally look at the data in the WSJ. This data is a month old as I clipped it out, then never used it in a response. Certainly the US commodity markets use quirky units. They set the contract size as a specific multiple of some unit, then price in that unit. For crude, the contract is 1000 barrels, and the price is per barrel. For refined product, the contract is 42000 gallons (can anyone see where that number comes from?) and the price per gallon. At the "contract" level, a trader can directly compare. July light sweet crude was (in June) $75.48/bbl or $75 480 per contract. NY reformulated gasoline was $2.0705/gallon or $86 961 per contract. Sure, there is a markup, but they have to refine it, and gasoline is the highest value product, heavy fuel oil is worth much less. These more or less correspond to wholesale prices. At retail, there is another markup and government taxes. We are paying around $2.799/gallon (0.74/L), and a good chunk of that difference is taxes. I know you pay a good bit more in Australia and ALL of that difference is taxes. Obviously the data is easier to compare in metric: Crude: $0.475/L, Gasoline, wholesale, $0.547/L, Gasoline, US retail, taxed, $0.739/L, Australia, retail, taxed, ??? (remember to include exchange rate). So, which organization is most likely to want to "hide the data." I certainly favor metrication, but I don't agree that everyone who doesn't favors dishonesty. The charge gets their hackles up, and I don't think it can be defended. There are cases where it can, like market stall traders with uncalibrated, uncertified scales in the UK. The US would be better rid of its quirky units, but the standards are well established and enforced. Traders are honest or caught. I think the case for metrication can be better made without the rhetoric. ________________________________ From: Pat Naughtin <[email protected]> To: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Cc: U.S. Metric Association <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, July 8, 2010 11:03:31 PM Subject: [USMA:48119] When is a nation metric? On 2010/07/09, at 02:36 , [email protected] wrote: In other words, how fully metric a country is, from completely metric with no old units ever used by anyone, to essentially old units only with only a bit of metric used. The indication would be useful if it sensed what the average person does and says in conversation, as it is assumed that scientists and others behind the scenes use metric. In that regard the USA would be quite to one side. > >Carleton Dear Carleton and All, It seems to me that all attempts at development of measuring methods have always contained a large drive toward honesty. Examples include all of the Biblical references to measurement, the Magna Carta, John Wilkins 'univeral measure' that became the metric system, Thomas Jefferson's decimal measures report to Congress in 1790, the French 'decimal metric system' of 1790 (later than Jefferson), and the CGPM International System of Units (SI) in 1960. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/MetricationTimeline.pdf and search for any of the above words. And, at the same time as these moves toward honesty were taking place, there were also resistance to any better measuring methods by those who, for whatever reasons, favored or support dishonesty. Examples include 'pints' of beer in the UK served in portions of 500 millilitres with a head of froth to fit into a nominal pint glass if filled to the brim, oil purportedly measured in 'barrels' that never existed to make it difficult to compare crude oil prices to be compared with pump prices, shoe sizes, bra sizes, clothing sizes of all kinds, etc. etc. etc. etc. Overall there are people who support honesty who also support the metric system. And there are those who support dishonesty! I suppose that a nation is truly metric when all transactions are transparently honest. Cheers, Pat Naughtin Author of the ebook, Metrication Leaders Guide, see http://metricationmatters.com/MetricationLeadersGuideInfo.html Hear Pat speak at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lshRAPvPZY PO Box 305 Belmont 3216, Geelong, Australia Phone: 61 3 5241 2008 Metric system consultant, writer, and speaker, Pat Naughtin, has helped thousands of people and hundreds of companies upgrade to the modern metric system smoothly, quickly, and so economically that they now save thousands each year when buying, processing, or selling for their businesses. Pat provides services and resources for many different trades, crafts, and professions for commercial, industrial and government metrication leaders in Asia, Europe, and in the USA. Pat's clients include the Australian Government, Google, NASA, NIST, and the metric associations of Canada, the UK, and the USA. See http://www.metricationmatters.com/ to subscribe.
